Whoa! Look at this Pluto on the IC!

This Pluto on the IC! 

As usual when reading a chart, I look first at the angles. They are the most powerful places.  I trust the time of birth is exact and I say Whoa! This Pluto on the IC! Three degrees orb is tight. That’s a big Pluto. 

Reading charts seems like a very complex business, but the job can be enormously simplified thanks to prioritisation. We could almost read this chart by reading only one thing: Pluto on the IC. 

It feels like an abyss opening under a cradle, like the embrace of a crocodile’s jaw, a fascinating black hole. 

Confronted with this power, consciousness can’t bear it. Half of it passes out, the other half splits and turns away, focuses on the light and quickly forgets! Forget what? Who knows what it was, once it has sunk into unconsciousness… There is a shadow, somewhere, that’s all. 

This Pluto doesn’t seem to challenge the personal planets with hard squares or opposition, but Pluto is Pluto and the IC is emotional foundations. 

Black Moon Lilith in Scorpio makes Pluto more intense. 

Black Moon Lilith in the 4th house adds emphasis to the difficult energies associated with home and emotional foundations.

Pluto conjunct with the IC counts as a BIG Pluto in the 4th house, even from the 3rd house side. 

We may also notice that Black Moon Lilith opposes Chiron, the wounded healer energy. 

The interaction of these two rather painful ones won’t make things better. No need to split hairs.

Pluto being super important, and Mercury very emphasised in the chart of a Gemini, the tight Pluto-Mercury trine can be understood as an essential pillar in the architecture of this chart. 

A trine is an easy flowing aspect, it won’t make Pluto easy but Mercury is likely to be somewhat nuclearly powered. What is the word for the extreme opposite of naive? If this person was a dog, they would sniff passengers boarding planes for  the drug squad and detect the smallest amounts the trafficking guys would be hiding even under layers of fat within their own bellies. 

On the other hand, trusting is not Pluto’s natural attitude. Have a little chat with this Mercury-Pluto combination and the outcome may be that they will quickly know more or less everything about you, but you won’t have a clue about them, and you may not even know that you don’t have a clue. 

Trust issues. 

• Is it difficult to trust? It’s ok if you’re not willing to talk about it…

So with Pluto and Lilith there is something like an abyss where there should be emotional foundations, but maybe there is also a miraculous suspension bridge hanging over the void thanks to Pluto’s regenerative power,  and let’s look somewhere else now. 

The Sun, Venus and Mercury are in Gemini. What a contrast! Here comes the dancing trickster, the social butterfly, in the 11th house, a happy house resonating with the voices of friends, camarades, mates, companions, fellows, peers, we’re all in it together, all in it together, all in it together, sing with me! 

Who is in charge of the mailing list, who shall print the agenda for the next meeting, who will take notes and write reports, who will keep things clear, clean and well organised thanks to the professional attitude of a Capricorn Moon in the 6th house seeking for security and contentment in the contemplation of a well done job in a well ordered world? 

Interestingly, Saturn, ruler of this 6th house of work and daily routines takes us to the 3rd house of learning, communication and connecting with the close environment, as if being a Super Gemini wasn’t enough! And there is a trine being the Sun and Saturn. This Gemini may be more poised and grounded than average. But how do you get grounded with a black hole where there should be foundations? I bet you hold on to what you can, so far we have work and friends or community. 

What happens when blending Capricorn and Gemini? The quick and the slow, are they antithetical or can they find a way to function together? The multitasking and the long-term goal energies, can they co-exist? The curious and the serious? The quick and the serious? The ever changing and the focused? The communicator and the professional? The one with little wings at the ankles and one who is working to pay the bills ? 

I am starting to suspect that maybe this is the chart of a carrier pigeon. 

Thinking of Gemini and Capricorn, one thing that comes to my mind is “disconnection”. Gemini is famous for its tendency to be like two or many people living in the same body. One of them could be a Capricorn! 

In the Zodiac, Gemini and Capricorn are ‘inconjunct’, and in this chart, Venus in Gemini and the Moon in Capricorn are connected by an inconjunct aspect, which is a bit of an oxymoron, because inconjunct etymologically means unconnected. In ancient astrology, they considered only major aspects. The word “aspect” etymologically means looking, like in “spectacle”. Planets in inconjunct signs were understood as placed in each other blind spots. 

I am a modern astrologer, I do consider so called minor aspects like the quintile or the semi-sextile (technically the two are ‘inconjunct' in the traditional sense of the word). 

I don’t think there is a total disconnection, because, to borrow a principle of neuroscience, ‘what fires together links together’. Planets are activated by transits. When a planet passes through Aries, Libra, Virgo or Pisces, it simultaneously sends a harmonious major aspect and a tense one, one to Gemini and the other to Capricorn. 

If we consider only major aspects, each sign is connected with eight signs of the zodiac. So half of the activations of inconjunct planets happen simultaneously. 

For instance, when a planet transits over 12-13 degrees Aries, it squares the natal Moon in Capricorn and sextiles the natal Venus in Gemini. 

The result is a simultaneous activation in a bitter-sweet fashion. 

Venus and the Moon are the feminine planets, they want bonds. Sometimes they bond in their own way in their own time, but at times they realise they can’t be happy together. 

Venus in Gemini in the 11th house is likely to love having loads of friends, and possibly flirt in a light hearted way, and the Moon in Capricorn in the sixth would rather have a daily timetable with only one stable and reliable one. Try to compromise when you’re living in the same body and get regularly activated at the same time!  

Talking about disconnection, in this chart, among the five personal planets, aspects are very rare. There is only one major aspect: a wide trine between the Moon and Mars (it doesn’t appear on the chart above because of the settings). Other than that, there is the quintile between Venus and the Moon, and that’s all! 

The Moon herself is not very connected with the whole. Other than the inconjunct aspect with Venus, a trine with Chiron and a semi-square with Uranus the disruptor, all of it problematic, nothing. 

The Moon shares with the 4th house the meaning of emotional foundations and origins, and we’ve already talked about Pluto, the disintegrator. Of course, Pluto is also the energy of regeneration, of rebirth after initiatic death, let’s not forget the silver lining. 

All this makes me think of an old tale: Donkey Skin. After the death of her mother, a princess had to flee her house because her father, the King, wanted to marry her. To survive she found a job as a servant, she  worked hard like a Cap Moon in the 6th… There will be a happy end indeed, but in the meantime, we can imagine a happy-go-lucky-anyway girl, smiling to everyone, talking with the birds, Disney like (even if the original tale is from the Grim Brothers), sharing with her many friends her hopes and wishes. 

Friends, hopes and wishes are traditional interpretations of the 11th house. It’s also a house where we find help, protection and support. And it’s the house of groups and communities. Are friends and communities suitable alternatives to the 4th house?  

Note for astrology students:

I don’t know if my interpretations are correct, but for now I better not care. I could wonder anxiously: my interpretations are consistent with the chart, but is it exactly that? Maybe I’m forgetting other possible interpretations, maybe I haven’t taken important things into account….? 

Such thoughts are just paralysing. We won’t get far walking on eggshells. Better weaving some interpretation and keeping the question marks hanging. 

How do you think Sherlock Holmes was thinking, when confronted with difficult cases with only a few clues that didn’t seem to make sense? I bet he was telling many possible stories to himself, discarding only what he was sure was wrong and keeping the rest like drafts on his mental desk… 

In other words, better brainstorm than brain freeze! 

Understanding a chart is not all deduction and logic. It’s rather induction, intuition and poetry. We can’t get rid of the irrational, but we can ask the irrational for help. We can ask guidance to our subconscious mind, or to God, or to our spirit guides. We can throw our question in the air and trust we’ll be able to hear the answers. It’s divination. 

Now, we could wonder. 

What is this Mars conjunct Chiron doing in the 10th house? It would not be a good idea to wonder that. Reading a chart is prioritising, and there are much more important indicators to look at before this Mars. 

Look around! 

The evolutionary path, as shown by the nodes, is always so telling, and here, the South Node is in Aquarius, ruled by Uranus in modern astrology, and the North Node is in Leo, ruled by the Sun. What’s striking in this context is the Sun-Uranus opposition which amplifies the opposition of the nodes. Moreover, Uranus is conjunct the cusp of the 5th house, naturally associated with Leo in modern astro, and the Sun is in the 11th house naturally associated with Aquarius. 

Aquarius and Uranus represent here the energy that is familiar, innate, the default settings of the personality. Leo and the Sun represent what the person aspires to. It’s a story of a new dawn, of a new sun who dares to say something like: 

“Hey, I am who I am, I am me, enjoy my light and my warmth, or get on with it! I don’t want to be like you think I should be anymore! I want to be like life makes me!” 

Of course it’s difficult, when the habit is to behave like Uranus/Aquarius, according to ideas, in the head, relying on the social group to exist as a member. 

It must help to have Leo Rising on this path though. People with this Ascendant are often noticed. They stick out from the crowd. With an Aquarius South Node, it may be uncomfortable. 

“Hey, why are they all looking at me? I would prefer to be invisible but I can’t hide!  Well, better get used to it and hold the light now it’s on me.”

This is still happening in the 11th house, Uranus is playing rebel-weirdo in the 5th of self-expression, the Sun wants to play authentic self among others in the 11th. 

Now, it’s time to notice that Uranus also rules over the 7th house of the other, and Leo over the 1st house of Self. The nodes are also suggesting an evolution from being in a relationship to being oneself. 

“Hey partner, I can see you! I was like you in my previous life, and even when I was so young that I didn’t know better! But now, I am like the Sun, we can be together but I won’t compromise about who I am to keep the peace!” 

All this was more important than looking at Mars, and now we can think that Mars is the Sun’s ally, his job is to fight to assert what the Sun wants to express… and it’s near Chiron, wounded, having to heal. 

Mars and Chiron are in Taurus. Pluto is in Libra. They are both playing in Venus’ garden. Taurus is the sign of the flesh, bulls are rarely ethereals.  Earth is the element of the body. Other than Mars and Chiron, in the Earth element there is the Moon, tucked in the 6th, one of the difficult houses, with this semi-square with Uranus, a very mental energy that doesn’t like the reality of the flesh too much…

We may wonder…  It may be easy to be loved and surrounded by many friends, but how is it to be oneself and engage in more intimate interactions? But of course, we won’t expect an answer if we’re asking the question. Privacy is privacy.  

With a dominant Pluto, there is room for a host of anxieties, and Gemini may prefer to surf the waves than dive into the sea. 

Connection, disconnection, reconnection…  It could also evoke the story of Isis and Osiris, the latter being cut into many pieces and reassembled by the former. Collecting scattered bits and pieces… was Isis a Gemini?

The Saturn Sun trine must be of great help. Saturn brings endurance and determination in the long run. A Capricorn Moon is a determined one, and I guess its concern for down to earth reality, getting up in the morning, going to work to pay the rent like the princess who became a servant of the tale, helps keeping oneself in one piece. 

Donkey Skin will let her skills speak for herself… Of course she will get noticed. 

Another very important aspect in this chart is the Mercury-Neptune opposition. 

In this chart, Mercury is the final dispositor of everything. It’s quite remarkable, we can start from any placement, for instance Uranus in Scorpio is ruled by Pluto and Mars, both are ruled by Venus and Venus is ruled by Mercury. The Ascendant is Leo, ruled by the Sun, ruled by Mercury. 

Mercury has an essential role and that’s how we can only notice the tight Mercury-Neptune opposition. There may be fog. There may be a huge Pisces like sensitivity contrasting with the sharpness of the Gemini mind. There may be dreams and movies, imagination…  

There are two kinds of every sign. There are Gemini that are more intellectual, and Gemini more emotional. Both types are curious, quick to change, moving at high speed, and this second type may also be moved at high speed, whilst still quick to change, multi dreaming between two phases of multitasking, laughing, crying, melting and wondering who on earth they might be, but that’s precisely what they are supposed to create. 

And now, it’s time for me to be humble. Have I been a good diviner, with the help of the Great Spirit and the support of the chart? I don’t know. It’s never granted. But that’s not what matters most. What matters is that these symbols have often proved to be the best catalysts for having real conversations about what’s essential, if only with oneself, and sometimes with others. 

A Gemini is likely to agree, when we can speak about it, we can live with it. 

Jean-Marc Pierson

Astrologer, Writer, Storyteller

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Children in the birth chart

With my Mum!

When we say "children" we automatically think: "The fifth house!" and we look there.

However, the fifth house is not the house of children only, and not only the fifth house means something about children.

I'll start talking about other indicators that have to do with children. 

Jupiter is a traditional significator for children. Jupiter is exalted in the sign of Cancer, sign of fecundity, Jupiter is about expansion and growth. Families, tribes and nations grow by having children - and it is generally considered a blessing. You can see the connections. 

The thing with astrology, and with symbols in general, is that their meanings have no boundaries. You can never say something like: the Moon is your mother; the Moon says everything about your mother and is only about your mother.

Symbols work the other way round. The Moon is mother, a mother by definition has children so the Moon symbolises children and childhood as well. Children are emotional, sensitive and have a lot of needs, the Moon symbolises emotions, sensitivity and needs... Crowds are emotional entities, the Moon symbolises crowds as well and so on...

So, the Moon, between quite a few other things, symbolises children. 

 I knew a woman who had five children - which is quite exceptional nowadays in Western countries. Her Moon was very prominent, conjunct the MC in the sign of Cancer. She also had Venus, ruler of her Ascendant, in Cancer, and a very tight Cancer Moon- Taurus Mars sextile. Taurus is also a fertile sign; the Moon is exalted in Taurus. As a general rule, Water signs and Taurus are the fertile signs.

This woman had also Jupiter in the first house, and conjunct the North Node. So globally we had various placements  emphasised, which all have in common that they may mean children.

When we look at charts, placements say nothing precise, we only get clues. We are like Sherlock Holmes; we look at all these clues and if we are trying to figure out a story in which they all make sense together... 

So, for children, we can get clues from the Fifth house, which includes the sign on the cusp of the house, the placement of the ruler of the house and of course planets in the house, if there are. Along with the Fifth House, Jupiter, the Moon, the sign Cancer, and also the Fourth house, naturally associated with the Moon and meaning private life, home and family.

If someone has a strong focus in this house, home and family is likely to be a strong focus in their life. It's not a hundred percent sure, as all houses have more than one simple meaning, and not all meanings have to manifest.  

But it's very likely. So, unless this Fourth House is very challenged by difficult aspects and placements, a busy fourth house also suggests family life and therefore children. Then, more about them in the fifth.

We can also look at the Sun and the sign Leo. A reason for that is: modern astrology sees various expressions of the same archetypal energies through every planet, the sign they rule and the house naturally associated with it.

So, if the Fifth House has to do with children, Leo and the Sun must have some correlation to children as well. However, Leo is not considered a fertile sign like Cancer or Taurus. It’s the opposite, Leo, along with Virgo and Gemini, are considered sterile by tradition. Leo’s symbolic associations rather take us to showing, and children need to be shown a lot of things. A parent is likely to say often: "Look at me!" "Listen to me!". That's not being egocentric, that's education.

Leo is the sign of mid summer. In temperate zones of the Northern Hemisphere, where astrology is from, it's a hot and dry time. You don't sow in Leo, but you reap. Children are fruits aren't they?

Let’s sum up: for questions about children, we look at the Fifth house, and also the Fourth, to Jupiter and the Moon, and the sign of Cancer… 

Then the particular signs, houses, aspects involved can give indications. For instance my father has Jupiter in Gemini and the ninth house. His three children have settled abroad, including me, writing and recording in a foreign language - Gemini - about knowledge and worldviews - Sagittarius.

Let's focus a little bit more on the fifth house now. 

It's the house of children. Children play. The fifth house is the house of fun and entertainment. Not only our children play and have fun in the fifth, but ourselves as well. We have a playful child within!

Children are spontaneously creative. Give them paper and colour pencils, they make drawings, they don't complain about not knowing how to draw. The fifth house is the house of creativity and self-expression.

Self-expression can be artistic, painting, playing music and so on, however, it's not limited to arts. The way we dress up, the way we talk and whatever we do because that's exciting and great fun is self-expression. Even creating a business can be. Then the business owner says "this business is my baby, I made it".

Our children are our creations, to some extent. We made them, and then we have to educate them.

The fifth house is also the house of education. I remember someone who had a stellium in the fifth house and no children. She was a teacher. She spent her days standing in front of an audience of children and showing them. The fifth house is even the house of speculation. I think this shows that speculating is a game, a gamble rather than real work.

And the fifth house is also the house of romance. When we are in love, we are like children, we don't pretend. We show who we are. A wonderful romance is the meeting of two selves free to express who they really are.

So once again, there is more to the fifth house than just children, but children are a central theme in fifth house interpretation.

If someone has children, and wonders about questions about education, no hesitation, there are valuable clues in the fifth house.

Jean-Marc

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Why is there water in Aquarius and Capricorn?

Saturn rules over Capricorn, which is an Earth sign, and over Aquarius, associated with the element Air. However these two signs have Water as part of their symbolism. How come?

The symbol for Capricorn is a Sea-Goat. The front is goat, the back is fishtail. This suggests a transition from fish to goat, from sea to mountain, from Water to Earth. It’s a story of becoming dry.

Everything is relative. The story may not be about becoming absolutely dry, but moving towards the dry end of the wet-dry spectrum.

Psychologically, this dryness is the dryness of the child growing up. In the beginning, in Cancer, the world is all emotional dependency, mother-child bond, the protection of the family. In the womb we were completely immersed in Water. When we were a baby, we were still swimming in very emotional waters… Growing up is somehow drying up! Like the goat we learn to climb our own mountain without being carried by mother and the flow. We learn to be self contained and pursue our own goals, in spite of the contrary moods…

Now, the rulership of Saturn over Aquarius, the Water Bearer, often representing Water pouring down, seems to contradict the idea of Saturn being dry, or drying. Aquarius is an Air sign.

Even without knowing Greek mythology it’s easy to connect the Air of Aquarius with the sky. In the air, the water bearers are the clouds. The ruler of the opposite sign, Leo, is the Sun - which, during daytime, can only be obscured by clouds. Uranus, the modern ruler of Aquarius, happens to be named after the God of the Sky.

Water in Air and pouring down is rain. Here, the action of Saturn is condensation. Saturn always increases density: with this energy, Water comes out of Air and Earth out of Water.

This is not modern physics! This is a language of symbols. Replace Air by “gaseous”, Water by “liquid” and Earth by “solid”, and think of Saturn as cold and pressure.

Rain is cold. Air is considered hot according to the traditional elemental qualities, this shows how relative these notions are: Air is definitely hotter than Water. Air has insulating properties. At the same temperature, we feel Water colder than Air. Air can be felt as cold, especially in Winter when it rains and winds, but by contrast with Earth and Water, Air is hot.

Air is a symbol of mental space. Fleeting thoughts and ideas are weightless and invisible like the wind. With Saturn, our mental life becomes consistent and coherent. Our ideas may become fixed or at least organised into systems - theories, plans or ideologies.

Saturn gives form, Saturn shapes: In Air, it is the wind blowing on the water, making waves, as the glyph of Aquarius represents. Waves are visible manifestations of the invisible wind’s action. Our ideas shape our realities.

The wave is a symbol of individuality. We are waves, and we are the ocean. We are made by the wind, and we are the wind (but we have forgotten).

Now you may wonder. Is Aquarius, the water bearer, a symbol of the clouds, or is it the wind that makes waves? The answer is: both.

Symbols do not obey the “either…or” demands of rational definitions of concepts. Symbols don’t separate, they unite. The wind carries clouds, clouds carry water, the context is the sky, the symbol is the whole picture.

I hope you enjoyed this Watery ballad through the lands of Saturn!

Jean-Marc Pierson

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Moon in Aries

Once I saw a hen charging a dog. It was a young and  playful dog, it was three times as big as the hen. Behind the bird was a string of cute little chicken. Mother-hen doubled up in volume and charged. I was so impressed. The dog ran away.

Since I got this vivid picture as an answer to the question of what a Moon in Aries is like, I can’t see anything else. Yes, Moon is mother, but not only, and even though a mother hen charging like a ram to protect her progeny is a wonderful illustration, there must be more to an Aries Moon than the odd heroic moment…  

I know a woman with an Aries Moon. She  doesn’t look like it though. Her own mother had an Aries Moon among a few other Aries placements. The daughter must have inherited something of her primary role model. 

I don’t know her well enough to see far beyond her Pisces rising, so I am not able to dissect her privacy for the sake of astrological knowledge.  The Moon is on the private side, that’s my point.

If her Sun wasn’t conjunct the Ascendant, her Aries Moon in the first house would be much more apparent. but even an Aries Moon can’t steal the show to a Rising Sun. 

Some people wear their moon on their sleeves, others don’t. 

She told me she was embracing the Aries Mooness through her Pisces veil! f you’re curious, here she is.

Now, let’s leave her alone and let the symbols speak. 

Aries mothers aren’t constantly charging potentially dangerous individuals or animals to protect their little treasures.

There are times when they turn towards them and say things like: 

“Look in my eyes and tell me. What did you just say? I want to hear it again.” 

There is no getting away with it.

“This is not acceptable, do you understand why? Say it!”

Or

“But there is nothing to be ashamed of, child, come here, we need to talk about it!” 

Or

“Do you know how important you are, for me? You are my child. I love you.”

You don’t have to be good at guessing with Aries!

Moon is mother and more. Moon is also family and early environment: she is mother plus father (hopefully), plus siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and even neighbours, if the fences are not too high between the grasses.

There may be many opportunities to literally bang into one another with the Moon in Aries. Expect energy, running, climbing, jumping and crawling. 

Expect Can-you-do-its?  And Bet-you-I-cans! Followed by First Aid kits.

Expect the opposite of avoidance when it comes to conflicts.

The Moon describes our early environment. We are plants with roots in her soil.

Now, we must take the rulers into account to interpret planets. The sign feels the state of its ruler. If Mars is winning, Aries is winning, and the Moon in Aries benefits from a winning environment.

Is Mars, ruler of the Aries Moon, strong and healthy or banging into a wall? Does he have to fight a hard battle to break through a carapace?

We usually imagine Mars with a sword or a spear, but a shield is a weapon as well. Not all people with Aries placements appear fearless.

Is courage the victory over fear? Aries doesn’t mean victory, it means the fight. It’s not won in advance. Courage is fighting the fight, no more no less.

Mars in Aries may be a flamboyant warrior. It may also be a little sprout fighting its way between stones and clumps to appear as a new little plant, so cute, just above ground level. Hop! Grazed by a rabbit. Starting again. Beginnings are tough…

Mars in Aries may be the small boy playing with the big boys. He will look more like a stereotypical Mars in Aries when he is back with the small ones, but he would rather not.

It’s the subjective experience that matters, not what other people think.

Back to the Moon. In the beginning (of the post)  she was mother, then family,  and environment… She also means the child within us. 

There is more than one child in our inner gallery of subpersonalities. The Moon is the inner baby. It’s vulnerable,  emotional and needy. In Aries he may be loud. 

Later baby will be told to grow up. The Moon rules over instincts and emotions, they are strong in Aries. Have you got a heavy Saturnian lid weighing on your impulses? Bang bang bang! There is something powerful inside that wants to exist!

Imagination belongs to the Moon. In Aries, I let you imagine at what speed images may come and go.  

Imagination is doing mentally what children and artists do when they draw. 

With paper and pencils as a metaphor for a Moon thing comes astrological embarrassment: creativity and self expression are of the Sun, on principle.

 Reality is always playing tricks onto our labels and categories, because in reality, all the energies are always collaborating. When children and artists are drawing, the accent is on creativity, therefore the Sun rules.

 But when the process is internal, we call it imagination; the Moon rules, because the focus is now on the quality of the paper and pencils,

The Moon is receptive;  the quality of the paper is a fitting symbol.

A Pisces Moon may have a watercolour paper pad. A Libra Moon, a pastel paper pad. As for Aries… scrap paper!

Something fit to receive first sketches, rough drafts and unprocessed strokes of genius.

Drawing made of three lines, only three, but straight to the point: imagine this as a kind of imagination.

Let there be sparks! 

That’s enough. What’s next? 

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The Cross of Matter matters

If you were born in Kiruna, in the north of Sweden, and Cancer or Capricorn were rising, your cross of matter looks like it has been rolled over by a truck. 

As you know, Ascendant, Descendant, MC and IC are the four angles. Together they form the Cross of Matter.

However, in many charts, it doesn’t look like a proper cross, with all the right angles at the right places, unless you were born when 0 degree Aries or Libra were rising.

Let’s call the  Ascendant “East”, the Descendant “West", the MC “South” (in the Northern Hemisphere) and the IC “North”. 

This flattened cross of matter  looks very wrong. East and North, West and South never collide like that! 

The MC is not exactly South actually. The MC is where the Sun peaks in its daily course. It’s in the sky. When you’re looking South, you’re not looking upwards but towards the horizon. 

When the Sun peaks, it shows South anyway,  even in Kiruna. 

If we wanted a chart aligned with the horizon of our daily lives,  we should grab the MC-IC axis and force it,  with energy and determination, to square the Ascendant Descendant axis. (Imagine your chart is a disc made of rubber and the axis are rods of metal) 

If we did that, we would have North, South, East and West properly placed, but the zodiac would have become distorted. Some signs would appear very elongated, and others compressed, poor things.  

That’s a question of perspective. 

Diagrams often represent the plane of the ecliptic horizontal (even though horizontal should be for the horizon) and the earth, turning around the Sun in the ecliptic, tilted on its axis.

Wherever you are, your horizon is tangent to the earth and turning with you as the earth rotates on its axis…  Try to visualise this  if you can, and flatten the picture to get a chart! 

Forgive my geometry in the air. 

All this to say: to deepen our understanding of the angles, we can reflect on the symbolic meanings of the cardinal directions. 

If you were a prince of this world, you would want the front of your palace facing South.

On days of celebrations, you would appear on a balcony, facing the crowd. The Sun would shine on you, enhancing your glory, from behind the crowd. 

If your balcony was facing North, it wouldn’t work that well. The Sun would dazzle the crowd and you would look insignificant. 

The MC is a place of power, of honours and achievements, or simply the place where we are seen by many. If you are the drunk of the village, that’s the role you’re playing, as a member of society. Being drunk is what you’re showing to the crowd, from your own little South facing balcony. 

When you’re facing South, North has your back. You remember your first appearance on this balcony. You felt proud and intimidated. Your father, behind you, laid his hands on your shoulders. Or maybe it was your mother. And maybe you were a princess. Anyway, you didn’t happen out of the blue. You felt you were a product of the land, the heir of a family. 

 If you are the drunk of the village, it may have been a different story indeed, but who knows about that?

Bear with me, I’ll tell you about East and West soon, but I feel like inflicting a bit more air geometry on you first. If you can’t bear it, just skip the next paragraphs! 

The plane of the ecliptic is where the Sun seems to go round, as seen from Earth. The ecliptic is flat like a very thin pancake. 

However, we always talk about the zodiacal belt. Imagine a belt surrounding the pancake. 

Now, imagine standing on earth and extending an arm eastward at Sunrise. You have the power to extend your arm horizontally so far that the tip of your finger reaches the zodiacal belt. 

If you do that on the day of the Equinox at sunrise, the tip of your finger touches the heart of the Sun. It is exactly East.  

But if you extend your magical arm eastward at the summer solstice, the Sun rises further North on the horizon. 

The tip of your finger touches one side of the zodiacal belt. You’ll touch the other side in Capricorn. 

Now imagine that this belt is so wide that it’s actually a cylinder. In the middle of it, the pancake. The zodiac signs are like vertical stripes on the cylinder. 

That’s what happens in far Northern or Southern latitude. The Earth is round, so the closer you get to the poles, the more your horizon makes a wide angle with the ecliptic. 

As the earth is turning, your East pointing finger is going to go through some signs obliquely, almost vertically. It will take a very long time before reaching the next sign. But a bit later, your finger will move more horizontally, and move very quickly from one sign to the next. 

There would be more to visualise, but we have enough to understand why charts like the ones in Kiruna look the way they do:they respect the proportions of the Heavens, but the view of our own horizon gets distorted. 

However, it’s important to keep in mind that we live, day in day out, at the centre of this cross of matter, and that it is, indeed, a proper cross. It’s our orientation. The meaning of the angles is tied to what the four cardinal directions mean. 

East is the most fundamental of the four directions. East shows the difference between being there or not being there at all. 

The Sun appears on the Eastern horizon, and like a new Sun we appear for the first time when we are born, naked.

There is no costume for the ceremony on the South facing balcony yet. The only clothing we’re wearing is this naked body. 

If you were a princess of this world, you would want your bedroom’s window facing East. You would rise from your bed and open the curtains to salute the rising Sun. You would not try to impress the Sun, being just who you are in your pyjamas. Then you would turn to your wardrobe and decide on how you will appear today, to your loved ones and to  whoever else.

East in the chart is you. The rest is interactions. 

West is beautiful. You would want a reception room there, to hold parties starting at the end of some days, or to sit with only one significant other and watch the sunsets, until death do us part. The Western horizon means death as well, not only other people. Opposed to East, it’s where we disappear. And opposed to who we are, it’s where others come into play. Not any others, the room is not big enough for the whole world to come. Those we invite, consciously or not, those who are attracted by our vibe, mirrors, opponents, partners… 

Because it’s annoying to get death inviting itself along with other people in the reception room, we pushed it away, to the eighth house, originally “the beginning of death”. The Sun is in the eighth house in mid afternoon, a time when shadows start becoming  longer. 

There are many house systems but there is only one cross of matter. The four directions are powerful places. Whatever is found near the angles of a chart plays an essential role in our life story. 

Jean-Marc Pierson , storyteller, astrologer.

Would you like me to read your chart? Taking a one to one class? Or Join a small group for a five sessions cycle? Visit my homepage and contact me.

Jupiter in Aries: a leap of faith. Featuring Saturn in Scorpio.

I threw the Astrodice, asking: “What could I write about now?” and I got Jupiter, Aries, and the First House. 

I had been struggling with Saturn in Scorpio and feeling more and more depressed in the process. 

I was thinking of the old Latin phrase:

 “Omnes secant, ultima necat” found on ancient sundials. 

“All take something away from you, the last one kills you.” 

Every single hour does that. 

Saturn is time, and it meant also death or tombstone before Pluto grabbed all the morbidity for himself in the name of modernity. 

I was thinking of skeletons and of the pirate flag, I was thinking of replacing the skull that means “danger of death” by a scorpion on high voltage electrical transformers or bottles of chemicals…

I was thinking of the vanity of the aspiration of writers, artists or other wannabe great men to beat death with a masterpiece (if I am dead at the time of your reading this, thank you) and of the sexual tension that the scorpion’s tail evokes so well, the purpose of which being also to beat death by passing on genes and property, but also to give it, as the ultimate end of every new life. But sometimes, even Saturn finds it difficult to get hard. To have an erection, you need to relax…  

I was thinking of Saturn doing Saturn with extreme intensity, of weasels who would not let go of the throat of a prey, even whilst being bludgeoned to death by a furious farmer…

I was thinking  of someone I know who has been working so hard over the last decade that she built what might well become an empire, starting from scratch.

I was thinking of geisha mastering the art of eliciting fantasies and desire with such an iron grip on themselves, do they ever feel pleasure I wonder?... 

I didn’t find the way to put all these evocations of Saturn in Scorpio into words, even though I just did it, but before I started writing this, I had given up, thrown the astrodice wondering what to write about, and I got Jupiter, Aries, and First House.

Then, I pushed all the contents of my mind out in one go. I was talking about Saturn in Scorpio, but I was doing Jupiter in Aries. Aries is a go go go let’s go energy! 

And now,  I’m done with it! Enough of Saturn in Scorpio, there may be dots left, connect them yourself if you feel like it, or let’s move on before it becomes boring! Let’s talk about Jupiter in Aries, now! 

• Knock knock!

• Who’s there? 

• Jupiter in Aries! Do you believe in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? 

• Oh no! Not you again! 

It takes some courage to take your Bible and your human fear of rejection to people’s homes, and to insist. 

This Jupiter in Aries is not the best it could be though. Yes, it does take action, like a good little soldier, on matters of faith, but is it good faith really? 

• It’s all written in the Book! 

Silly Jupiter, why do you believe in Mercury? 

It is written that  “In the beginning was the Word”, but which word was the Word exactly? Was it the word “Word” which was there in the beginning? 

All these stories are supposed to be inspiring, to make us feel something, to stimulate our intuition, not to be taken literally! 

• But if God is love (and it’s true, because it’s written here) do you think he would abandon us without giving us a user manual?

A user manual? Oh my God, this Jupiter has definitely been hypnotised by Mercury. And then it stumbled into Mars’ energy field, aka Aries, and couldn’t help moving forward fanatically.

Ian Mc Gilchrist, neuropsychiatrist and philosopher, makes the point that our Western culture suffers from a predominance of a left brain approach to perceive the world, to the expense of the essential, holistic, metaphorical, intuitive way of the right brain. His work is huge. As it happens, the key words and themes associated with the left brain are those astrologers assign to Mercury, and those associated with the right brain are typical of Jupiter. In his book “The Master and his Emissary” Ian Mac Gilchrist borrows the metaphorical story Niestzsche used of a master who his betrayed by his emissary. The master has no choice but trust him; the emissary takes the power but hasn’t wisdom and understanding. This book is about 500 pages and this was just a short paragraph. It is behind my saying that Jupiter has been hypnotised by Mercury in the mind of people who believe in religious texts literally, a tendency which is actually present in our whole culture. We believe in science, logic and reason beyond reason. Jupiter has become hypnotised by Mercury.

A healthy Jupiter takes a leap of faith, from common sense and reason to intuition of a higher order. In the sacred Books, Jupiter reads between the lines. It understands how words betray and reveal at the same time. Jupiter is understanding. There is an ineffable reality...

In matters of faith, someone with Jupiter in Aries will be quicker than anyone to to get it, and then is likely to act on it passionately! 

Now, everyone has Jupiter in their chart, but not everyone leaps from ordinary to mystical experience, whether at the speed of Aries or not. 

However, we all make similar leaps at all times. The left brain may have imposed its values as predominant, we can’t do without the right brain altogether. We can’t have a mental life without both Mercury and Jupiter.

As an example, let’s read a comic book. I’m French, to me the summit of the art is the adventures of Asterix and Obelix. 

Before I make the point, a quick digression: in these books we see the roman legions expanding what would later become the roman empire through military conquest. Mars in Aries is a single warrior, Jupiter in Aries brings cohorts of them. They march on in good order, under the command of their officers. 

Organisation belongs to Jupiter (and enforcement to Saturn). The Eagle, symbol of the king of the gods and of Rome stretches its wings over the Roman legions.

Jupiter in Aries could be a high ranking officer (or mean that you come across as someone who could be one, if you have it in your First House). This placement is likely to be an enthusiastic community organiser, not to say bossy.

In the comics, Asterix and Obelix win against the Romans every time they meet them, thanks to the magic potion prepared by Panoramix the Druid, but that’s not historical truth… 

Back to my point. How do Mercury and Jupiter work together when we read a comic book?

Mercury sees what is in the book, literally, that is a succession of fixed panels separated by white space. Speech balloons are hanging above the characters.

But our experience and our pleasure, as readers, is nothing like a succession of fixed panels separated by white spaces.. With Jupiter, we link them mentally. We create a mental world in which they are alive, walking, fighting, laughing. They move, they make noise. We rejoice. There is more in our mind than on the paper.

There has been a leap from the communicated material to the experience of a world. We trust we get what the authors suggest. We do that even more when we read novels. Mercury is only half of the mind. Jupiter puts everything together, and we understand what’s going on.

In everyday life, we are constantly turning the data we get from the world through our senses into our lived experience of reality.

In lectures about perception I attended at university, I learned that people born blind who have eye surgery and see for the first time don’t see a stable world with objects and people easy to identify. In the beginning, they experience something like visual chaos. The brain, or the mind, has to process all the visual input before they can see a stable world.

Our perceptions are built.

This fact is also demonstrated by asking to subjects to wear glasses that makes them see the world upside down. After some time of dizziness, they end up seeing the world right - and then, they see it upside down when they take the glasses off!

The world we see is higher knowledge to the extent that there is more to it than what our eyes meet.

The mystery of what happens when our consciousness translates nerve impulses in the brain into, for instance, the sight of vivid colours is a spiritual experience. There are no colours in our grey matter. They belong to what astrologers associate with Jupiter. It’s higher knowledge.

In practice, when we interpret Jupiter, we can say it’s our mind. It’s how we know and understand. How we integrate the world brings about how we integrate ourselves to the world. Our understanding becomes our attitudes. Liz Greene says that Jupiter can act as a surrogate Sun. In Aries, Jupiter is likely to be quick to understand, quick to embark on new explorations, assertive in matters of opinions, ideas or beliefs…

Jupiter is a civilising energy.

The story of humanity could be summarised as a series of attempts to escape the state of nature to get a better life. We take a leap of faith from nature to culture, so to speak. We seek knowledge and wisdom to temperate wild instincts. We establish the rule of law. A rock star may sing they were born to be wild, if they were wild there would be no motorcycle, no rock’n’roll and no song. 

Jupiter in Aries is likely to promote values like action, courage, daring, individualism, heroism… 

(If you’re used to thinking of values as being ruled by Venus, you’re not wrong, but Venusian values are personal, and Jupiter’s cultural)

 With Jupiter we create laws to organise society. Unlike natural or spiritual laws, we are actively creating these ones, this suits Aries well. Legislators initiate bills. If someone in your household suggests making rules about who takes the bins out on what days, check their Jupiter-Mars connections. 

Growth and faith as expressions of the same principle.

A question that has been tickling me for some time is how can I understand Jupiter as meaning growth and faith as expressions of the same principle.

The idea came to me that a clairvoyant would see the energy field of a growing leaf as the template the leaf is about to grow into.

What if our consciousness was like a young leaf, and the destiny life invites us to grow into was like the invisible energy field of the next steps we may take? 

With some free will thrown into the equation, we may accept the invitation now (or maybe later) but whatever is calling us is nothing we could have rationally and logically thought of. 

And maybe there is more than one possible path, and maybe our own will has contributed to the creation of the energy field…

 One way or another, the time always comes when the next step is a leap. 

Jean-Marc Pierson

Astrologer, storyteller.

You are on my website, the homepage is here.

Blog posts written over the years have become a book: Magical Doors.

Let me read you the introduction on youtube. Next video I’ll dress up.

Would you join me for an astrology retreat in Turkey in autumn?

How to read a chart. Where is the Earth? Why is it the Moon?

The Moon is mother, says the astrologer. 

The Earth is our mother. Traditional cultures with roots have been saying it since ancient times. In Greece she was called Gaia.

Where is the Earth in the chart? The usual answer is that it’s at the centre, half way between Ascendant and Descendant, where the horizon crosses the meridian.

 The Earth is where we are looking at the Heavens from, we can’t see it over our heads moving from sign to sign! 

Some chart types, for instance on Astrodienst, include a small circle at the centre. That’s where we are.

Here is another answer: Where is the Earth? It’s the Moon! 

This is not to be taken literally. I’m not that confused. 

Let me explain:

Traditional cultures with roots have been saying, since ancient times, that we are children of Heaven and Earth. 

There is a fundamental duality in us. We are spirit and matter, we are body and soul, we are from above and we belong below. The planets must express this fundamental duality if they are talking about us. But, of course,  the Earth is nowhere to be seen up there! 

But look. The Sun is a Sky wanderer. The Moon is close to the Earth. The Sun is Father, the Moon is Mother. They are the Yin and the Yang, they tell us about the fundamental duality. 

So, is it Sun and Moon, or Heaven and Earth? 

Such a question could be asked by someone with an overactive left-brain, and a sleepy right-brain, the one that understands metaphors. It’s both! It depends on the mood of the storyteller.

The Moon changes, she waxes and wanes, she dies and is reborn. Her phases reflect the phases of mortal life. She is our mirror. Nature, tides and plants do what she does.  She means home, influence of the environment, emotions and instincts, generation. Along with the first house, she means something about our body. Yes, she means Earth. 

The Sun looks immortal by comparison. Always round, always radiating light and warmth, it’s the most potent source of life and energy we know, and if it’s a source, it’s like God. It’s  Spirit bursting out in Heaven.

Now, when we are reading a chart, it doesn’t help to think that the Sun is a symbol of the Ultimate Source… unless we connect it with the idea that there is a divine spark within us, a creative spark that is busy creating ourselves from within. For more about the Sun, read The Sun is the Heart of the Chart.

All the efforts and aspirations to become who we want to be, our dreams and ideals, our callings belong to the Sun. This immortal part is not vulnerable. Only its creation is, that lives in the flesh, in the Moon’s realm.    

In another post, “Self or Ego, what is the Ascendant?", I used the metaphor of a submarine -a metaphor for the Ascendant - driven by a pilot - The Sun - used to explore the depth of an ocean - a metaphor for life on earth. 

Seen from the lightness and freedom of the spirit world, incarnating on Earth can be compared to getting down to the bottom of an ocean; the soul in the body can feel imprisoned, like in a submarine. 

How we appear on earth, with a body and a temperament, is shown by the Ascendant and the First House. Our goals and intentions, our life purpose and the heroic journey of becoming who we want to be is shown by the Sun.

Thus, the fundamental duality can be symbolised by the Sun versus the Ascendant, or by the Sun versus the Moon. Symbols are flexible. What if we consider the three of them together? Ascendant, Sun and Moon are the “Big three”, the most fundamental indicators in a birth chart.  

As part of a Sun-Moon-Ascendant Trio, the Moon is the soul, or psyche.

The psyche is an intermediary. She has a foot in the eternal world of Spirit, and a foot in the changing and mortal world of Nature. She is a medium. She rules over dreams, not the solar dreams of who we want to be, but the watery dreams, the messages. The Moon rejoices in the Third House. In our sleep, in our daydreams, in the flow of our thoughts and feelings, sometimes in a blurred way, sometimes clearly, we are connected with the great sea, whilst living in this body. 

Jung would talk about the function of intermediary of the Anima or Animus between the conscious ego and the collective unconscious. 

Again, the left-brains may be irritated, and ask: “So, the messenger, is it the Moon, or is it Mercury?”

They can work together! The Moon provides a flow of emotionally charged pictures, and Mercury articulates words to describe them. Thot, the Egyptian God of learning and writing, to which Hermes became assimilated in Hellenistic times, was God of the Moon. 

In this body, energies flow, or get blocked at times, causing diseases. If the Sixth House is more powerful than the First and the Moon, we may need some healing. Check also the Sun for the heart, upper spine and vitality. 

The Moon is Mother. Mothers are women, and women are witches, aren't they? They gather in a clearing in the middle of the woods to dance bare feet under the Moon when she’s full. They know the plants and they know how to bind, because they care for tribes and families.

They belong to the Earth and they extend invisible roots into the psychic dimension, where the light of the Moon reflects that of the Sun. 

Applying this to the metaphor of the submarine, the Sun is the driver, it is us, with individuality,  intention and purpose. It is the Heart. 

 The Ascendant is the submarine, with an emphasis on its outermost layer. The Ascendant says something about how we appear, with our body and face, behaviours and temperament, and how we interact with the surrounding world.  

The Moon is the flesh of the submarine and its Mama. (You know how submarines reproduce). The submarine’s Mama is outside and inside. Outside, it’s another submarine, which belongs to a whole family of submarines sharing characteristics, and it’s the environment where sustenance is found. Inside, it’s all the maintenance, health and safety systems, including the desire to have babies. 

The Moon is the psychic world that mediates the Sun-Ascendant connection. She is Earth and more…

Jean-Marc Pierson

Astrologer, Storyteller, etc.

To know more about me, about astrology readings, classes, active listening, visit my homepage

I would love to read for you!

And if you would like to have me as a teacher for a retreat in Turkey, it’s here

The Sun is the Heart of the Chart

Some people don’t relate to their Sun sign. It’s annoying! The Sun is the most important and the most influential of all the indicators. 

Astrology is a language of metaphors. For instance, the Moon has been a symbol for women since prehistoric times. One obvious connection is that both Moon and women go through monthly cycles. So women are like the Moon or vice versa.

So let’s look at the sky. What is the most important thing up there? 

The Sun is the most powerful, the most visible, the most influential of all the indicators in the birth chart. It is the most essential of all the heavenly bodies, for us.

So how come some people don’t relate to their Sun sign? 

A way to answer this question is to look for dominant energies. The Sun may be the king but sometimes kings have powerful ministers. 

 A planet conjunct to an angle of the chart, or very emphasized by aspects from the Sun, Moon and personal planets can become so dominant that its influence eclipses that of the Sun sign, and also of the Moon sign and Ascendant.  

Another way to become dominant for a planet is to rule over many other planets or points like the Ascendant or the Moon nodes. If there are, for instance, three planets in Virgo and the Ascendant and the South Node are in Gemini, Mercury becomes very important, even if the Sun is not in one of these two signs. 

So what happens then?

If, let’s say, Venus is dominant, even if the person is neither Taurus nor Libra, they will display Venusian traits, which will make them rather Taurus like, or Libra like - or a bit of both. Let's say Venusian. 

If Mars, Jupiter or Saturn are dominant, I think it's very important to remember that these three planets traditionally rule two signs each. 

If Mars is dominant in a chart we can expect Aries like traits, and Scorpio traits as well. When Mars is taking action boldly and energetically, Mars expresses its Aries side. But when Mars is waiting in ambush, resisting in the face of adversity or thinking of a strategy it's more like Scorpio. The sign in which Mars is placed and the overall balance of elements should give clues as to how this Mars is more likely to express. 

In all cases Mars dominant in the chart of someone with a soft sign like Cancer or Libra will give the person traits which are not part of the stereotypical description. 

Now stereotypes are just stereotypes. What is essential is deeper.

There is another and complementary way to explain why some people don't relate to their Sun sign: it is to say that they haven't understood what their sign is about. 

When you read standard descriptions of Sun signs, they describe how people born with this Sun sign are. Virgos are supposed to be fussy, picky, neat and organised. A good deal of them are, but there are also messy Virgos. So let's drop this idea of Sun signs as immutable characters, all cast in the same mould, as fixed in their ways as Greek marbles. 

If we come across a messy Virgo, a shy Leo, a silent Gemini, a sleeping Sagittarius… Instead of thinking that they are not how they should be, let's ask:

"What is the Sign about?" 

The messy Virgo may be intellectually very sharp. Their mind may be the most organised mind you'll ever come across. If you could visit their mental world... you would realise the description of the textbooks applies, but in their head, not in their house. 

It's possible that in the chart, the Sun or Mercury are afflicted by challenging oppositions or squares from other planets, and this generates disturbances. So to deal with the threat of chaos, Virgo separates their own universe into two distinct boxes. In one box, chaos wins. Investing energy in this box is of no use, let's be pragmatic and practical. In the other box, order is firmly established and maintained. That is the best possible use of the energy.

Take some distance and you'll see that this Virgo is really a Virgo even if the living room is an abomination.

With Virgo there is a strong urge to discriminate, analyse and organise. But it won’t be expressed exactly in the same way for every single Virgo. 

My father is a shy Leo. I've seen him many times being the silent one in family gatherings. He is nothing like the boisterous and egocentric stereotype of Leo. He is a Libra Rising - so Venus becomes his chart ruler and Venus is conjunct Pluto and conjunct the MC. This brings a very strong Plutonian influence. Other placements in his chart are not supportive of Leo energy - rather the opposite. Sun conjunct Neptune, Mars in the 12th house for instance.

So rather than asking "What is a Leo like?" Let's ask "What is Leo about?". In short, Leo is about self expression, it is about showing, sharing the light. Being at the centre and radiating energy. 

In my father's case, this was a challenge for him. He had to try hard to be at least a little bit like a Leo. Still he was a Leo. With another Sun sign, he could have been shy, and it would not have been such a challenge for him. He would have accepted it more easily. One day he showed me some self help books in the style of the fifties. “How to overcome shyness” - “Handbook for emotional people”. The Leo urge in him made him try, and I’m sure he tried hard. He fought like a lion. 

 If life is a school, my father had enrolled in the Leo school - but he was still far from the PhD. In all schools there are beginners, intermediates and more advanced students. 

Now, my father was not a complete beginner at the Leo school. He managed to spend his entire professional life on a stage. He was a maths teacher. He was sharing his light. He was making demonstrations on the blackboard. When a maths teacher demonstrates that something is true, he is right, and if you have something else to say on the topic, you are wrong. Students had better shut up and listen. 

My father had a trumpet. He didn't play very often but he had one. He didn’t look like a stereotypical Leo but if you look more closely you find the Leo energy at the heart of the mix. 

To understand what the signs are about, we can remember the stereotypes, but we also need to remember to be a little more subtle about them. The key question is: what is this energy about? 

Let me give you another example: Libra. The stereotype is that this sign suits women better than men, because Libra is all about relationships. In life, romantic partnerships, marriage or long term relationships are certainly a huge topic, but is Libra about that and only that? 

Libra is a cardinal sign. We have a contradiction, because we read in textbooks that cardinal signs are focused on initiating, starting, taking action.... And Libra has a reputation of struggling with decision making. Libra hesitates, that’s the stereotype! It’s the opposite of Aries, Cardinal and Fire, the typical action guy. 

But let’s remember that Libra is Air. Thinking is part of Libra’s field of expertise. As a Cardinal sign, Libra initiates a thinking process. The symbol of Libra, the scales, is an instrument of measurement. You weigh the pros and the cons. You compare. You oppose. You notice how things or people contrast. You perceive nuances. You compare contrasts with other contrasts...  You do that in your mind, then you may join a debate society. You may aspire to sit in parliament and initiate bills, or plead as a barrister. Or maybe you're taking delight in solving equations. In an equation, there are two terms and a relation between these two terms.  

Libra is actually as dynamic and energetic, in the Air, as Aries is in the heat of the Fire. 

So it is possible to be born a Libra Sun and to seek balance between opposites in other areas than romantic relationships. 

That’s all for today. Trying to understand what every sign is about in the great fabric of life is philosophy. It’s deep meditation, it’s contemplation. It’s a lifestyle at the end of the cosmic day. 

Jean-Marc Pierson 

Astrologer, storyteller, philosopher with a homepage.
How about an astrology retreat in Turkey?

The houses are moving!

First thing, you exist.

That’s strong, that’s powerful, that’s Angular, that’s First House.

Succedent Houses are Houses that come next.

Planets located in the second house are following those that are located in the first, in primary motion, that is clockwise.

These planets will rise next.

The Second house is a Succedent one.

You exist, and now you are hungry

You want food, you want money

Cadent Houses are Houses that fall over.

(form latin cadere, to fall)

Angles are peaks. After any summit comes decline.

After angular you fall into cadent.

That’s clockwise logic, aka Primary Motion. It’s worth repeating.

The IC is an anti peak, a reversed MC so to speak

The cadent house that falls after this anti peak actually starts climbing.

It’s the third house, aka House of the Goddess. The Moon is happy there.

She is a mirror as you know.

Of course Houses don’t move. At least not literally.

Houses are like stables.

A stable, is it a building, or a team of race horses? Or a team of race cars?

Angular, Succedent and Cadent Houses, understood as teams of planets and signs, race clockwise, in daily motion. It’s more like a procession than a race actually.

Planets placed before the Sun in this procession are called Oriental. (This is notion that emphasises once more the importance of how things move)

In this procession, the First house comes first, the Second succeeds, the Third comes next but the Third is also preceding the Fourth team, falling away from the angle that the Fourth is reaching.

However, in a natal chart, all motions are stopped in their tracks.

A chart is a snapshot, a frozen moment. In a chart, the Houses, like the signs and planets are fixed. Houses get activated anticlockwise by transits or progressions. Thus, again, the First comes first, followed by the Succedent second, the Third precedes the Fourth and the Fifth succeeds to it etc.

Now, this doesn’t deny the symbolic value of planets moving in primary motion, ascending through 12th, 11th and 10th houses, then declining and setting at the 7th place and so on.

We can perfectly look at things from various points of view.

To sum it up: the names of the Houses (Angular, Succedent, Cadent) describe the movement of the planets (and signs) contained within them in primary motion, clockwise.

The meaning of the houses is in great part derived from the highlights of this movement: planets (and signs) rise, culminate and set, they ascend and descend, day after day.

However, this clockwise movement is crossed in the opposite direction by the movement of the same planets moving in secondary motion, anticlockwise through the signs of the zodiac.

It’s worth meditating, because cosmic movements and life on earth reflect each other…

Jean-Marc Pierson

I am an astrologer. Yes I do read charts, and I teach. Here is the homepage.

Astrology and Identity

For astrologers, our identity is symbolised by the Sun, and by the Fire element.

This identity is supposed to be unique. I love the saying:

"Be yourself, everyone else is already taken."

Spiritual folks talk about a "Higher Self": there is an identity in a spiritual sense that is more authentically us than the little ego.

Can this "Higher Self" have a gender? A gender is a category. In this temporary incarnation, I am a man.

I may have had past incarnations as a woman. I also had a life as a rabbit, but mostly as a human being. This Higher Self which incarnated many times as a woman, many times as a man and once as a rabbit is now me, a man. Higher Self must be beyond gender.

The big problem with identity is that we don't know ourselves.

"Know yourself" was written on the portal of Apollo's temple in Delphi. Lao Tzu said "He who knows others is wise, he who knows himself is enlightened".

Throughout ages and traditions, self knowledge has been what we should strive for. It's not a given.

Because we don't know ourselves, we identify with a number of things. I identify as a storyteller, as a man, as French, as an astrologer etc. But this is my ego.

When we know ourselves, the ego dissolves. The ego may not like it but it's just a temporary illusion, a psychological construct.

The Sun in the chart symbolises both the authentic Self and the ego, which is the temporary illusion we entertain about this authentic Self we don't know yet.

The ego is like the snake that sheds its skin. It dies and is born again, always trans-forming. There is a sign and a house for that: Scorpio, eighth. What is real and eternal does not transform, has no form but can take form.

The Moon has another conception of the word "identity". To be fair with words, the Moon doesn't care about identity. The Moon belongs.

With the Moon we absorb our environment. Ideas like "intersectionality" are typically from the Moon. You are defined by where you belong.

Here are our roots in the material world: I was born French, my Frenchness is obvious when I record a podcast or a video. I am a man. I am white. Was born like that. It's Moon stuff.

I am middle aged. I have not always been middle aged, and won't always be, but that's part of my 'identity' for now. Boom, baby. The Moon always changes.

I am a man. There is a biologically obvious dimension to it (I don't do dick pics but I could if there was a philosophical purpose).

Biology is able to mix up its own categories, however in the majority of cases we are clearly born male of female. That's sex. Gender starts with sex but goes further.

We have absorbed and internalised all kinds of expectations about how we should be. All the influences we absorb are symbolised by the Moon and the Water element. Maybe Venus as well. Water and Earth, the archetypal Feminine energies take from outside in.

Some of the influences I absorbed contribute to my well being, others make me suffer. I do rebel against the influences that make me suffer, I want to break free from them.

How? There may be more than one way. I believe in Kind acceptance and Understanding of what is, in the "here and now".

On earth, we live within the Moon's orbit, in the world of forms.

Forms may be illusions but they are our reality. The spiritual path is striving to look beyond the world of forms and awaken the Sun within.

Jean-Marc

Astrologer, storyteller

I can read your chart! I can also show you how to read charts, possibly in Turkey in October 24. Here is the homepage Have a look, there is even a contact form!

Liquid routines and more about astrological interpretations

Astrology is a language of symbols. Symbols are metaphors for invisible realities.

The material world provides us with the pictures we need to describe more subtle levels of experience: “A solid discipline” is only solid metaphorically; we understand perfectly what it means because we have a direct and physical experience of solid things.

Language is packed with metaphors. If you need to take a break, you are not going to literally break anything. Work is hard, so it breaks, like a branch of dry wood or a piece of glass.

Symbols may at times suggest idioms that poets have not rendered familiar yet. If an astrologer tells you about “liquid daily routines” the expression sounds nonsensical, but what if the symbols suggest just that? How about a sixth house with Mercury in Pisces in it?

In this example, a word with a watery root like “fluctuating” could save us from being too surrealist to be paid.

“Flexible” could be relevant as well. The word “flexible” makes us think of a branch of green wood. Dry wood can’t be bent, it breaks. “Flexible” doesn’t apply to liquids but it implies a certain degree of humidity, literally and metaphorically. We may expect rigidity from an excess of the Earth element, flexibility from a good balance between Earth and Water and laxism or indulgence from an excess of Water.

If we wonder about the connection between Water and emotions, we can remember the expression: some people are emotional sponges. Liquid daily routines then may involve some emotional availability on a daily basis.

Language reveals a lot about the meaning of the elements. Once, as I was searching for inspiration for things to tweet, I thought: if the four elements are valid to describe life - or at least to describe the way we experience life subjectively - then they must be reflected in the structures of language. How about punctuation? I had the idea of tweeting:

Fire! Earth. Air? Water…

Language can reveal a lot, but we should become able to get the meanings beyond what is revealed by language, like children who, one day, become able to ride their bicycle without the little wheels.

We can perceive the metaphorical value of the essential qualities - dry, wet, hot and cold - independently of whether or not words or idioms reveal them to us. If nobody had ever had the idea of saying “I am an emotional sponge”, we would need to say it for the first time. It would be weird, but still make sense.

When reading astrological charts, we have to come up with evocative words to translate the pictures. Our work is poetry. It takes inspiration.

Breathe well!

Jean-Marc Pierson

Astrology readings, one to one or small group classes, digging deeper for self-knowledge, healing and empowerment, and an astrology retreat. You on the website, here is the homepage

Pluto square Moon

Moon square Pluto. Ouch, it’s a difficult one. 

Caveat:  Planets and aspects may be strong like big blows in the face, or soft like shoulders clad in velvet rubbing. Every planet comes with an invisible dimmer switch. So do aspects. How intense was the light at the moment you were born?

The Moon square Pluto that worries you may be a mere skeleton in a well forgotten closet, or a cohort of demons making your life hell day in and day out. 

In general, with this aspect, expect rubble. 

“Rubble” is an evocative way to say: “destruction followed by regeneration of something that means home to you”. 

Followed by regeneration, yes.  “This too will pass” is a valid mantra, it applies to rubbles. Keep calm and carry on is a relevant exhortation. (When you need to hear that, you’re in trouble)

The optimistic word in “destruction followed by regeneration of something that means home to you” is “something”. It may not be the end of your entire world. Only something. 

“What means home” is more subtle than just home. Our interpretations can be literal only once in a while. An earthquake, a landslide, bombs falling or damages caused by time and neglect can cause roofs and walls to collapse, literally. Then you’re dead, or homeless. 

However, we are symbolic beings. The Moon means home, home means environment, environment is family, tribe, village, city, nation, environment is nature, it’s the little piece of land we belong to (rather than the opposite) and it’s the blue planet that owes us… 

When transiting Pluto squared my natal Moon, I left France and came to England. It was my decision, it was a good one, it was time to close a chapter and get a fresh start. I needed to shed my old skin and leave it behind. I had spent eighteen years of my life in Drôme Provençale, in the South-East of France. I loved it so much there. My heart had made roots. When Pluto squared, I left. I hope I’ll get another life and live there again. I want another youth. I loved it so much but it’s all over even though still living in spirit. 

Rubble can be metaphorical; other related pictures can be relevant, the snake tearing its own skin apart, the uprooted tree… 

As a Scorpio Sun with Cancer Rising, I could only be especially sensitive to a Pluto square Moon transit.

The Moon rules over the inside world, which contains our most vulnerable side. There is a need for wrapping and warmth. Nurturing, nourishment, safety… 

We are spirits in the material world. We inhabit bodies, courtesy of the Moon-Mother. Our body is our home. It is a home that needs a home. For some, this home feels like a prison. A future butterfly must feel trapped in the cocoon. One day, it will break open. Transformation is permanent. 

Our spirit is wrapped up in layers of soul, like an onion. There is an etheric body, an astral body and many other bodies. We are made of inner layers and we belong to outdoor layers, family, natural habitat, village or city etc.  

When Pluto squares the Moon, the question is: what layer, or what layers are being torn? Is it physical, emotional, social, mental…? 

We may dream that our house is falling apart, the earth shaking and trees being uprooted.  Then wake up, sweating and feel so relieved that it was “just a dream”.

But what is happening in our dreams, isn’t it a real psychic event?

The world of dreams could erupt and overwhelm our consciousness, people with white blouses would call our case a “psychosis”. Our mental world is also a home. (Who lives in it?) 

Pluto squaring the Moon may simply find us struggling with insecurities. We may feel tormented by inner demons. In the outer world, our house could stand still, as if nothing was going on. Neighbours won’t know anything about our underground fight for mental survival. 

In my understanding, when we go through hell consciously, in the world of our own feelings, we are diffusing the destructive energies. We are sparing ourselves painful manifestations in the physical dimension. Paying attention to our inner life is worth a thousand talismans. 

I with you fertile daydreaming and cogitations!

Jean-Marc

PS Check this: Astrology Retreat in Turkey 2004

PPS And for readings, classes, more about my book, contact etc, welcome to the homepage

Spiritual Enzymes

The symbols of the zodiac are spiritual enzymes.  Edited and posted on Substack

The anonymous author of “Meditations on the Tarot”  - A Christian Hermetist - introduces the Major Arcanas as “Spiritual enzymes”: they have the power to stimulate and awaken deep layers of the soul when we contemplate them. I have no doubt that the zodiac is the same. The twelve signs are authentic symbols. 

Symbols are not mere conventions, like ordinary words. If you don’t know that the French word “bateau” means “ship”, you won’t be able to guess. The sound of the word “bateau” has nothing to do with any sound that may suggest a ship. You can calligraphy the word with great art, it won’t look like a ship at all. 

Symbols on the other hand are like tips of icebergs: if you see the tip, you can have an intuition of the whole iceberg. 

Imagine being new to the world like a child. You see an iceberg for the first time, however you have previous experiences of  floating things. 

Intuitively, you are using the law of analogy: this new thing (the iceberg) must behave like things you already know (the yellow duck in the bathtub, a piece of wood in the river...) so there must be a  part of the iceberg below the surface. Intuitively you also understand density, because you have experience of small and heavy things versus bigger but lighter ones (the formers sink, the latter float).

You can feel the approximate size of the immersed part of an iceberg, even without previous experience of icebergs. You apply the law of analogy: you assume that it goes with this new thing- the iceberg - like with the things you already know.  

Symbols invite us to a similar intuitive understanding. They appear as the tip, they mean the iceberg. Thanks to the symbol, we should be able to guess the whole thing without opening a textbook. 

One day a guy called Archimedes found the exact formula for floating bodies, but he would never have been able to discover the scientific formulation if he hadn’t had first the lived experience of things floating or sinking. 

The famous esoteric law of analogy states that we can similarly get intuitions about the invisible worlds. 

Symbols are tips of spiritual icebergs. Don’t take the metaphor too literally, this doesn’t mean that the spiritual world is cold like the Arctic. It’s only the tip versus hidden part that is supposed to make sense! 

Symbols show something we know, the head of a ram, a bull, two twins etc. or imaginary creatures like a centaur or a sea goat - but these are made of parts that belong to the world we know: a  horse and a man, a goat and a fish…

The other side of the equation, the hidden part belongs to dimensions that are beyond the grasp of our senses. Symbols mean psychic energies or spiritual realities. The word “occult”, as you know, means “hidden”. 

The law of analogy, as an esoteric principle, states that “As above, so below” and we usually understand that “above” means the heavens, and “below” is down here on earth. 

Above means the subtle and invisible worlds. Below is the reality we experience, everyday, thanks to our senses.

As above so below goes both ways. Our world below is like what is above, it is a reflection of the psychic or spiritual dimensions.

At the same time, there is a radical difference between what’s familiar and what’s beyond our grasp, transcendent, mysterious, unutterable, ineffable, you name it. 

The more we calm down the mental noise the more we’re making room for intuition.

The more we become silent like a cathedral the more we can hear, feel and see.

A humble temple can do.

Blog posts from past years have become a book…

Symbols are spiritual enzymes. Astrology is a spiritual path. 

Jean-Marc

Homepage

Jupiter in Scorpio and the eighth house

I threw the Astrodice, with the question: “What should I meditate on now?”

I got Jupiter, Scorpio and the eighth house. I didn’t like it too much. 

Jupiter is a teacher. It would come to me later, to help me understand Scorpio and the 8th house better.

“Later” happened on the bus. I felt a tightening in my chest. Anxiety or heart attack? I’ve never had a heart attack, as far as I know. I’ve had panic attacks manifesting as the feeling that there is something wrong in there in the past. A few years ago, I felt so bad that I went to the hospital. I had nothing, and I passed off as an attention seeker. 

I told myself it was most probably just anxiety. 

I watched the people on the bus. They looked alright. They seemed to feel secure, well anchored in their bodies. I felt that mine might just break down, something inside would get torn, I would find myself like a wingless bird floating above a collapsed nest, about to be carried away by I don’t know what whirlpool… 

I could tell myself that it was most probably not happening, that it was just one of these moments, that this one too would pass etc. But I could also tell myself that one day, sooner or later, death will come. One day, there will be no passing of the panic attack. 

On that day, I better be able to stand firm within myself and witness the flesh getting torn apart without getting torn apart with it. Holding on to the present moment and see… Santa Maria, a bit of help is welcome please! 

Jupiter in Scorpio. If Jupiter is a teacher, this teaching is not an intellectual one. It’s more like training. Remembering where there is trust inside, how to call, pray, reconnect with a hidden dimension, call it spirit, a place where consciousness and eternity live together in peace…

This one too passed, I was just a guy standing on the bus.

Scorpio is a Water sign. Water is creative, but not from scratch. Under the surface lurks stuff that was seeded, planted before, days or ages ago. When we are confronted with it, we might get swallowed, possessed, immersed in states of being that feel like being caught by the monster from the wardrobe. 

We don’t need logic but faith, courage, firmness… We need to be able to light our own light and be able to surrender. 

As usual, thoughts of compassion for the others, all those souls who live, like us, in breakable and corruptible bodies, help finding the centre. The heart. Recall the heart is the meaning of a pain in the chest. 

On the same day the Astrodice gave me Jupiter, Scorpio and 8th house, a friend sent me a sad message. She was so hurt because of love life things that she felt like life was not worth living... 

Saying words of despair is not jumping through the window, but they express well how it hurts. The pain is real. I’ve been there, or not far.  Feeling betrayed, rejected, treated like worthless, being used and powerless, whilst craving for love. I can understand.

The old scars are still bleeding. 

Jupiter is the explorer, the truth seeker. In Scorpio it wants to understand the deep layers and the unprocessed pains they conceal. Understanding is healing. 

We have to understand in our flesh, not just intellectually, that a wound is just a wound, not a law of the universe. 

We may have to cry, we must be moved to understand intimately.  

With the Water element, understanding is swimming. 

Jean-Marc

On this blog there is a homepage, with a contact form between other things.

It’s here

A post on this blog that students of astrology may find particularly useful is “How to read a chart as a whole”

It’s here

I wish you deep inner peace and trust in the Great Spirit!

How to develop your intuition with astrology

Symbols show what they mean. We can understand them directly.

Take Cancer. Let’s dive into the picture. Let’s pretend we know nothing. Where will this symbol take us?

It's a crab. There is an environment: the sea and its perpetual flux and reflux. Crabs appear on the shores when the tide is low. They disappear when it's high. Tides are following the rhythm of the Moon and like the Moon they come and go.… 

Let’s be carried away by the sound of the waves.

This makes us feel in a certain way. How is it? A bit nostalgic? Dreamy? There are days and there are nights, there are ups and there are downs, sometimes we’re strong, sometimes we’re vulnerable, like babies… 

Life is an eternal return. Women make babies, babies grow up, boys and girls become men and women. They make love, they found families. Women have babies, babies grow up, repeat.

Generations are waves. Waves speak of generations. Out of the water comes the crab, soon to be taken back in its embrace. 

When the Moon, responsible for the ebb and flows, shines over the sea, we enter a world of dreams. We may wish we had a shell like the crab to protect our sensitive mood. We’re swimming in the world of the soul, all pictures and fantasies, yet instinctive and sensitive…

Water is fertile. Water is full of creatures that can't survive out of their environment. Babies‘ world is an emotional bath: in the nursery, when one starts crying, another joins in and soon they are all crying together, it's liquid… Mothers sing nursery rhymes, they don’t try to reason with babies, soothing passes through presence, intonation, feelings. Baby calms down and falls asleep… One wave after another…

Letting our mind and soul be impregnated by symbols allows us to follow threads of meanings. 

Leo. A roaring lion, claiming power in broad daylight. After Cancer, that’s a completely different atmosphere! 

Symbols make us feel the meaning before we find words to describe what it’s about…

Reading the part about Cancer

Focusing on the symbols, we can conjure up the spirit of the energies. “Conjuring up spirits” are words that belong to magic, and yes there is something magical in this poetic approach. Imagination is a way to develop our intuition. Imagination doesn’t mean making things up: imagination simply means forming mental pictures.

However, we shouldn’t naively believe whatever comes up in our mind. Reality checks are necessary. 

Whatever we may come up with has to be consistent with standard astrological knowledge or be rejected. It may also be confirmed by the feedback we can get from others. Coming back to Earth is the healthy conclusion of the process. The alternative is drowning. Beware, Water is also a world of illusions. 

The same imaginative approach works to explore the meaning of complex configurations. This may lead to psychic perceptions at times. 

In a previous post, I used Venus in Leo square Mars in Taurus as an example of the method consisting of combining keywords to make meaningful sentences. Thinking in pictures is the “right brain” complement of this “left brain” technique. 

Venus in Leo. Can you see this beautiful girl? She is the kind that can’t be missed. There is a little crowd of admirers around her. She laughs at their lines when they are good, there is a constant banter going on, she loves it. She decides on every move. She says “Let's go to the bar!” or “Let’s go to the beach!” … They all follow. 

There is one who is not happy over there. It’s Mars in Taurus, her husband. He played the game, and he won. She found him different. He knew how to do beautiful things with his hands. He had a rooted style that fascinated her. She married him. He believed the game was over, but no. The game is never over. It’s just a game, but…

What happens next? I won’t tell you! 

Let the story fall into your mind like a seed. Let it grow like a plant. Play with ideas, let them go, forget about the whole thing, think of your characters again after a good night’s sleep. It’s not assembly-line work. 

Make an independent portrait of Mars in Taurus, before he met Venus in Leo. Love him, love her, understand how a square connection can be so exciting, in the beginning… 

Maybe, something will come up and make you laugh, or touch your heart. We can’t take it for granted but it may happen. Sometimes it takes days, sometimes a split second. Sometimes it’s a good metaphorical story, and sometimes, it’s spot on. 

I leave you to it. 

Jean-Marc

Thinking of taking a class? What I have been describing in this post and the previous one (Sentences with keywords) is a mental gymnastic. Understanding how things work is great, practising it takes training.

There is a homepage on this website, and a contact form! Thanks for your visit!